The banned Russian series that Ukrainians are pirating en masse

A Russian television series has shaken Ukrainian society. Slovo Patsana. Krov na asfalte is the most viewed series on the Internet in Ukraine today. The show is produced with money from the government of Russia, the same state that unleashed a war against Ukraine. The invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin has only strengthened a sense of national Ukrainian identity among citizens of a country that has been independent for only 32 years. But the series shows that historical ties with the current enemy still exist.

Russian internet pages are blocked in Ukraine, and the Ministry of Culture has reminded the public that disseminating audiovisual products from the country that is bombing and attacking them is prohibited. Not only that, the use of the Russian language has been banned by law from government agencies, the school system, and has been marginalized on radio and television. Slovo Patsana can only be seen through pirated downloads, and despite this, it has enjoyed overwhelming success. The media know that it is the most viewed series on the internet because the main song on its soundtrack, Piyala, is the most listened to on the Spotify and Apple Music platforms in Ukraine, and it is the fourth most listened to on YouTube.

Slovo Patsana. Krov na asfalte (which translates to, “A man’s word. Blood on the asphalt”) tells the story of a group of teenagers who join the criminal gangs in the city of Kazan in the dying years of the Soviet Union. Funded by the Russian Institute for Internet Development, the series portrays a cruel and violent society, and there have even been petitions in Russia for it to be cancelled.

“In Ukraine, a Russian series that promotes violence, crime, and the inherent aesthetics of the aggressor country is being spread on the internet, especially among teenagers,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture warned in a statement on December 7. “It contains hostile propaganda that is unacceptable in Ukraine during the war,” it added in an official note. The ministry warned that viewing the show is illegal because it can only be found on pirate websites or Russian platforms. It can also be seen on Telegram channels.

“For the online security of our country,” the Ministry of Culture continued, “it is important to stop the dissemination of Russian content, to prevent the influence of its message and its psychological operations in Ukraine.” Despite the warning from the authorities, social networks and Ukrainian forums are full of comments — for and against — from people who have seen the series. Anna Alkhim is a Ukrainian fashion and style influencer, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Alkhim inadvertently put herself at the center of a storm by acknowledging in one of her messages that she was fascinated with Slovo Patsana. The media and hundreds of users on social networks have accused her of being a Russian propagandist.

The controversy has grown so much that even former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko referred to the series in a meeting with young people on December 9, in which he asked the audience not to watch it: “We will achieve victory with patriots, not with thugs.” Actress Irma Vitovska published a video on Facebook in which she even asked the Security Services of Ukraine (SSU) to act against the people viewing the series: “I want to warn the SSU and all citizens of Ukraine, that our teenagers are sympathizing with a Russian television series, from the country that is indiscriminately killing Ukrainians, including our teenagers.”

The SSU is one of the organizations in charge of identifying possible Russian collaborators, including those who spread enemy propaganda. In a report published in October, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) criticized “disproportionate sentences” being handed down in Ukraine based on messages on social networks: “The OHCHR has documented the case of a 60-year-old woman who was accused of justifying armed aggression and the violent overthrow of the state for having shared messages on social networks about the war in Ukraine. She was sentenced to five years in prison.”

Vitovska particularly regretted some comments she had read that were nostalgic for the USSR: “All these positive comments are as dangerous as war. I would like to ask the parents of these young people if they have a conscience.” Katerina Yakovlenko, an expert on Soviet visual culture, explained on December 8 in Suspilne — a state media outlet— that the success of Slovo Patsana is an example of the “ostalgie” in the former countries of the communist bloc. The concept originated in the former East Germany that is formed with the words ost (East) and nostalgie (nostalgia): “Curiosity and fascination with the criminality of the 1980s and 1990s in literature and cinema is a classic component of ostalgie.” For Yakovlekno, “it is neither good nor bad,” and does not in itself indicate an affinity with Russia. “The phenomenon especially affects new generations, who have no direct memory of that time or who were very young,” the researcher adds.

“Russian defines us”

For centuries most of Ukraine was a region in the Russian Empire, and later the USSR, so cultural ties are inevitable, according to screenwriter Andrii Kokotiukha. He wrote in an article in NV on December 11: “A Ukrainian cannot imagine [growing up] in Birmingham or Baltimore, but he can in Kazan, easily, because the urban development of the USSR is the same. The Russian language is a birthmark, whether we like it or not, and it defines us.”

The use of the Ukrainian language has skyrocketed since the start of the invasion. Millions of people who had Russian as their first language have changed their language. But even so, it is still commonly used, especially in the east. In November, controversy arose after Iryna Farion, a professor at the Lviv Polytechnic University, attacked the Ukrainian armed forces because she had discovered that thousands of soldiers communicated in Russian. The teacher, who comes from the more nationalist west of the country, wrote that these soldiers “cannot be called Ukrainians.” Farion, who is a linguist and former parliamentary deputy, was dismissed from her position after complaints expressed by senior army officers and by the government itself.

Anatoli and Valeria are a young couple who agreed to speak with EL PAÍS on the condition of anonymity. They are 31 and 22 years old and are fans of Slovo Patsana. “It doesn’t mean we are pro-Russian, but the series takes me back to my childhood gang in Kryvyi Rih [an industrial city in eastern Ukraine],” says Anatoli. Valeria says that the series gives portrays Russia in a bad light. “You understand that the violence you see on the screen will lead to a future where people end up supporting a war like the one we are enduring,” adds Anatoli. Both remember that Aigel Gaisina, the singer of the song Tatarin, published a message against war and in favor of peace on her social networks.

The Ukrainian government and presidency are doing everything possible to eliminate Russian influence. The Ukrainian law for the protection of national minorities — updated last week — now states that the Russian will be permanently banned from public institutions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that the law complies with the recommendations of the Venice Commission on the protection of Ukrainian identity and diversity, but the Commission asked that Ukraine comply with its Constitution, which protects “the free development, use, and protection of Russian.” The Venice Commission understands that wartime is a “transition,” during which this provision might be avoided. These recommendations are key for the EU in its future decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Viktor Tregubov, a Ukrainian army officer and regular analyst in the media (including EL PAÍS), commented on his social media on December 5 that the prohibition policy is like trying to put doors in the countryside and that what Ukraine needs is to create high quality shows: “If you want Ukrainian culture to win, produce content in Ukrainian. But don’t do it under the principle of hiding [the Russian content] or thinking that the patriotism of the work will compensate for its artistic shortcomings. Banning all Russian content will not be successful.”

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